Cressy 1980

Cressy, David. 1980.Literacy and the social order: Reading and writing in Tudor and Stuart England. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 246 pages. 0521225140. Location: Dallas Public Library.

Is interested in social structure and culture change in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Explores the social context of literacy in preindustrial England. Wrestles with questions about the extent to which people at various social levels could participate in the

• political
• literary
• religious, and
• cultural life of early modern society.

Questions the vitality and distribution of reading and writing skills. Reconstructs a profile of literacy in England during the Tudor-Stuart period, and compares the profile with other European societies. Claims a person's ability or inability to write a signature is the most revealing index of literacy. Literacy was a sensitive indicator of social status, and was responsive to

• economic
• political, and
• religious changes of the times.

Is the first to detail the extent of literacy in early modern England.

• Bibliography module: Cressy 1980
• In overview module: Bibliography (Literacy): C
• In modular book: Bibliography (Literacy), by Doris Gallemore, Trudi C. Hunt, Jeanne Swanson, and Stephen L. Walter
• In document collection: Reference materials
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 18 May 1999

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